Whitesboro to shine light on park concerns

Thursday

Located on the corner of a one-way suburban street adjacent to the village park, St. Paul’s Roman Catholic Church on Park Avenue in Whitesboro appears to have a peaceful setting.

Located on the corner of a one-way suburban street adjacent to the village park, St. Paul’s Roman Catholic Church on Park Avenue in Whitesboro appears to have a peaceful setting.

But the church’s pastor, the Rev. Abraham Esper, told village board members recently that’s not always the case after the sun goes down.

He’s complaining of late-night noise at the park. Other residents are concerned about littering and loitering there, too.

Village officials say they believe problems at the village park are isolated incidents, but they are planning to leave lights on later, add police patrols and ensure the park is as clean as possible.

“Folks for the most part are very responsible,” Mayor Richard Pugh said. “It’s going to be that one out of 50 that ruins it for people.”

Late-night noise

The Rev. Esper says noise from rowdy people in the park wakes him up at night. And the amount of swearing and foul language being used makes him glad to be behind closed doors, he said.

In fact, Esper said, the streets outside his former residence at St. Mary of Mt. Carmel/Blessed Sacrament Church on Jay Street in Utica were actually quieter than the Whitesboro park.

“It’s awful and it’s embarrassing,” he said of the disturbances.

Commissioner of Parks and Recreation Brenda Gilberti, who is also a village board member, said officials hope to address the situation by leaving lights on longer.

The lights in the park’s gazebo will be turned on at 9 p.m. each night for the next few weeks to see if that has an effect on the nocturnal noise.

“Hopefully, if there are kids going over there, that would deter them,” Gilberti said.

Board member Margaret Stephenson said she had seen kids riding bikes around the village late at night on more than one occasion.

The board has discussed the possibility of addressing the noise problem with a curfew, but Village Attorney Richard Parker said doing so would be difficult and bring up a variety of legal issues.

A village-wide curfew is impractical given the limited scope of the problem, Pugh said, but additional police patrols might be used instead.

The cleanliness of the village park was also called into question at a July 14 board meeting where a Whitesboro property owner said he was concerned over the amount of litter he had seen recently.

Ed Rowan of Utica told the board he often sees pizza boxes and soda cans lying around in the grass when he visits his rental property near the park on Clinton Street.

Rowan said he has owned property in Whitesboro for more than 20 years, and would like to see more “No Littering” signs in the park and more codes enforcement in the village as a whole.

Part of the problem, Rowan said, might stem from the number of rental properties in the village and the number of landlords who live elsewhere. He said he believes many residents aren’t as invested in the community as they once were.

“It’s a great village,” Rowan said. “It’s got people that care. It’s just that this absentee landlord problem, in my opinion, has become more and more of a problem.”

Pugh said Rowan’s comments about litter do not accurately reflect the overall condition of the park.

“Sometimes, we see one pizza box out there and we tend to think all of Whitesboro is a junk yard,” Pugh said. “It isn’t.”

The park is currently checked over and mowed once a week by the village Department of Public Works. It also is thoroughly cleared of litter each Wednesday following the village’s weekly summer concerts, the mayor said.

But small messes do sometimes occur between cleanings because of people tossing out food wrappers while walking or driving in the area, he said.

Resident Dennis Lado said he walks his dog Duke in the park every day and has never noticed a problem with litter. James Hagan, who took his young granddaughter to the park recently, agreed.

“My wife and I sometimes go to the Wednesday night concerts, and the park looks fine to me then,” he said.

Rowan said the condition of the park had improved since he addressed the board two weeks ago.

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